West Notes: Tulo, Kemp, Kennedy, Qualls, Appel

Troy Tulowitzki, one day after his name was misspelled on a Rockies’ T-shirt giveaway, was at Yankee Stadium watching New York play Toronto. Tulowitzki flew to Philadelphia yesterday for a second opinion on his left hip flexor strain, which landed him on the disabled list, reports MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. The doctor’s visit (Harding tweets it’s for a dry needling procedure to promote healing) is in of itself routine, but Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports notes Tulowitzki being at Yankees Stadium is no accident after the spelling snafu adding the Rockies cannot be happy he is attending another team’s game while on the DL and this sort of thing can lead to an eventual trade (Twitterlinks). Last Sunday, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post theorized a trade would only be possible if Tulowitzki was willing to wear the label of a disloyal, bad guy. The All-Star shortstop defended his decision to go to the Yankees’ game telling the Denver Post, “I’m with my family. I wanted to see (Derek) Jeter play one more time.“

Here’s the latest out of the game’s western divisions:

Though he constitutes a “backup plan” for the club, the Mariners have real interest in Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, tweets Passan. Seattle envisions shifting Kemp to the DH role eventually.

The Yankees, meanwhile, are currently “not in” on Kemp, tweets Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com. We heard earlier today the club is seeking a bat, including several potential options that profile similarly to Kemp (right-handed, power bats). Of course, those players do not come with Kemp’s $107MM in future commitments.

The Padres have announced right-hander Ian Kennedy, a popular name on the MLBTR pages of late, will not make his start tomorrow because of left oblique soreness, but will throw a side session either Tuesday or Wednesday, per the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Dennis Lin.

Astros GM Jeff Luhnow reiterated he is not going to trade closer Chad Qualls, tweets Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM. But, Luhnow said the team would consider dealing a starter from its MLB or Triple-A roster.

Last year’s number one overall draft pick, Mark Appel of the Astros, has been moved up to Double-A, reports Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle. The righty struggled mightily at the High-A level, throwing in a notoriously hitter-friendly environment, but had perhaps his best outing on Thursday. “All along the plan has been to get him to Corpus Christi and have him pitch there this summer,” said Luhnow. “And we wanted to build off of some positive momentum to make that happen. We have a lot of pitchers at High-A that are deserving of opportunities higher up. I think there were things that we wanted him to accomplish at Lancaster.”

Appel’s promotion, as well as being rewarded with a bullpen session earlier today at Minute Maid Park, has been met with displeasure within the Astros’ clubhouse. Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle tweets players have approached several reporters to vent and the comments have been laced with expletives (Twitterlinks).

Astros manager Bo Porteraddressed the Appel uproar by telling reporters, including Ortiz, “Any time something affects your clubhouse, I think as the manager you have to handle it. I will handle it internally. It’s unfortunate that they have been put in that position.“

Ortiz opines, via Twitter, Appel’s promotion and bullpen session add fuel to the clubhouse perception the 23-year-old is being babied. Baseball America’s Ben Badler agrees the Astros are sending the wrong message to their players, but their discontent should be over the promotion to Double-A, not the bullpen session (Twitterlinks).

Oh, honestly, Passan. Tulo probably just went to watch his idol, Derek Jeter. May have even been Jeter’s guest. It’s not impossible Tulo is traded in the offseason but this is the stretchiest of stretches.

As a Pirate fan, I’m not really a huge supporter of Appel, but I don’t really get why players on the Astros major league roster would be irate over the guy throwing a bullpen in front of the coaching staff. Seems awfully silly.

Maybe if they were giving him special privileges, but if it’s just the bullpen then those players should quiet. Honestly I think it’s good for prospects to come up to see the mlb team occasionally. It gives them a little break away, and reiterates the goal they are working towards.

Prospects should be invited to WATCH a game, but if they get on the field It’s called “a cup of coffee” and players have to earn them as well. Bringing a top pick while he is struggling in the minors to “throw in the major league bullpen” is a bush league move. I would definitely would be upset if I was in the Astros clubhouse.

I think it’s more of a motivational move. Hey, you want to get HERE, get it together in AA abd this is yours. There’s 23 Astros that need to focus on other things though…. Like notlosing. Only Altuve and Qualls should be talking to the media on this subject
.

You’re probably right, but either is looking harder to move with more moderate upside. I also seem to remember reading that Kemp still expects to be the big man on campus and it isn’t where he’s at in reality.

They only write about it in the paper because there’s people that actually believe it matters. A little secret, Tulo doesn’t get to pick where he plays until 2021. He can go and watch baseball games where he chooses until then.

Wait! Hold on a minute, you mean that baseball players are people too? That it is possible that they enjoy watching baseball as much as I do? That they could possibly want the opportunity to watch the game as a fan? No. It isn’t possible. Say it ain’t so Joe!

Maybe he does. Don’t think you have what it takes to get him either way. That’s the thing about baseball, no trade clause not withstanding, once you’ve signed the contract it matters little where you want to play.

I’m not entirely sure that he’d want to go to the Yankees. While he does idolize Jeter, he wants to go to a team where he thinks he can win. If the Yankees somehow were able to pull of a trade that the Rockies would accept (which I doubt they can), they would have basically no prospects left at all on an aging team. The Yankee way of buying the best player available on the FA market won’t work for much longer, there just isn’t enough talent that reaches FA for it to work.

“Seattle envisions shifting Kemp to the DH role eventually.”
Yeah. That should go smoothly. Kemp’s agent is lobbying to get Kemp the everyday center fielder’s job in LA even though he’s been awful in the field, and Kemp reacted angrily months ago at the suggestion he was a fourth outfielder. I’m sure he’ll warm to the idea of DHing — not.

Why can’t Tulo go to a Yankees game? It’s no secret Jeter’s his hero and the Yanks aren’t playing the Rox this year. So this is Tulo’s last chance to see his hero in action. Yanks cannot trade for Tulo — they don’t have the assets — so the whole thing is just stupid anyway.

This was the quote from the posting I was referring to: “Patrick
Saunders of the Denver Post theorized a trade would only be possible if
Tulowitzki was willing to wear the label of a disloyal, bad guy.”

One wonders if Appel’s promotion doesn’t have something to do with the Aiken failure. Maybe a message to younger players and agents that if you play ball, you will be treated well, and Aiken is a one off?

I’m thinking high draft picks. The lower ones know they have to wait their turn, and they can see how Houston runs things anyway. Houston is doing their usual race to the bottom this year, and will have two high draft picks. If I were a highly touted prospect (or a prospect’s advisor) I wouldn’t been too keen on being picked. This might just be damage control.

terrible….trade two righties…and be left with CC, Ethier, and a call-up Joc who youre not sure can perform in the bigs yet…3 lefties who cant hit left handed pitching…and no backup for Agon…another lefty. Uribe is gold glove caliber 3B batting .300…dont need another 3B.

I just dont see Bos wanting to do kemp for lester straight up, kemp has 5 years 117 left. saying they wantd dodgers to eat a big chunk like 60 mil? then rent lester for 3 months…just doesnt make sense for either side. IMO

hard to play that game…Lester being on a team with Kerhsaw and RYU 2 lefties he will want a contract in the middle…too old to toss 8 years at him I say 5-110 is what he is worth but he will want more…like greinke numbers

in the middle of that contract the dodgers will be wanting Urias to come up, just dont see 4 lefties in the rotation. That said I would love Lester for just 3 months if it cost Z. Lee or C. Reed and Darnell Sweeney

“Appel’s promotion and bullpen session add fuel to the clubhouse perception the 23-year-old is being babied.”
If players on the big club really are whining about this, it sounds like there are plenty of babies in Houston. One more can’t hurt.

Usually when relationships turn sour the team in question doesn’t send them to a place they want to go. They’ll obviously want a hull on Tulo but I wouldn’t be sending him to the place he prefers to go nor should they keep him if he’s disrespecting the organization.

Please, when a team’s losing the last thing someone wants to deal with is a clubhouse cancer. Yes, them spelling his name wrong is super foolish, he’s one of their franchise players after all, but him acting like a child and reportedly “wanting out” because his team’s been bad and isn’t in contention isn’t what any GM of an organization wants to hear. Not every team is going to be in contender every year, the clubhouse cancers always seem to come out when the team isn’t in contention.

Look at the 2012 Boston Red Sox as an example, the first sign of the team falling out of contention and Adrian Gonzalez sends the team owner a demand of firing Bobby Valentine, they end up shipping Gonzalez out and win a World Series with a bunch of guys who all have love for each others beards the very next year.

This whole situation is making the Rockies look mismanaged and someone is going to have to pay for that infraction.

Does anyone really think any less of Tulowitzki because he went to watch Jeter play in his final season? Given the opportunity, many baseball fans would do the same. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jesus sitting in Yankee stadium before the season is up.

I saw Appel pitch in Stockton Thursday night. 95-96 first time through the line-up worked on the offspeed stuff second time around. He looked like a top prospect to me and I’ve been watching minor league ball for 40 years. Obviously the big league staff wanted a first hand look at him.

Excuse me for not having an encyclopedic knowledge of the minor leagues and being more interested in talking about deals involving the major leaguers I know than than the minor leaguers I don’t.

The Red Sox are not the Cubs. I think that Kemp could help them much more than whatever prospects they could get for Lester and the Dodgers sign him him long-term is the next best thing to the Red Sox being able to resign him. So it is not like there is not some logic involved here. It is cool if you disagree with that logic or that it is not the same logic being employed by most GMs, but no need for you to insult me.

A lot of people are more interested in reading about potential trades that could actually happen, which, as you say, would be the logic being employed by most GMs. If you don’t know who the minor leaguers are, and you know they would be involved in trades, that becomes an issue.

They want to make room for Joc Pederson and they are never going to be able to move Crawford or Ethier. If they could get Lester and get a negotiating window to lock him up for the next 5-6 years, Kemp and cash or Colon, Murphy, and cash would be a fair price to pay.

I honestly don’t care what rarely happens. I enjoy reading the posts and comments on this site and sharing my point of view, no matter how uninformed or unrealistic it might be. If you are going to insult me, you should at least have the guts to do it under your real name.

The Red Sox are not the Marlins. They are not entirely out of contention. Matt Kemp could improve their outfield dramatically and if they have doubts about their ability to resign Lester this offseason, trading him makes a lot of sense, but I don’t think they are going to get top prospects like Pederson and Urias for a short-term rental, especially when the Dodgers could just as easily sign him this offseason.

I don’t necessarily think that my point of view is uninformed or unrealistic, but I can understand how it could be perceived that way. Regardless, there is no reason that we cannot communicate civilly with one another.

Tanaka
Betances
Ellssbury(6 more years,3 productive)
Adam warren
Gardy(3 years)
Yankees farm system has some promising prospects( prospects are also unproven but kids like
Aaron judge
Luis serviano
Ian clarkin
Gary Sanchez
John Ryan Murphy
A few more kids and you also have to remember that they signed a lot of top Dominican players( even though there only 16-20) they can get lucky and have 1 or 2 turn out to be solid/above average/stars in the majors. Obviously id rather have the cubbies system but I do think they Yankees have some type of future moving forward. All you can do is hope your prospects pan out to be what you hope or better and that’s what us fans and the whole organization can hope for in the coming years.